


Say Something (i would have followed you)

by Fox (Spacefoxen)



Series: Say Something [1]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Banter, Can be read as a stand alone, Gen, Gore, I should note that the mcd, I'm not sure how to tag this, Implied Relationships, Isn't bucky or clint, Plot What Plot, Pre-Relationship, What Have I Done, What else is new, and clint is immature, and pain, bucky goes full winter soldier, but part of a much larger project, implied steve/natasha/sam, it's just fighting, pre bucky/clint, steve is the belle of the ball, this was painful, what am i getting myself into?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-06
Updated: 2016-02-06
Packaged: 2018-05-18 16:24:34
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,788
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5934997
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Spacefoxen/pseuds/Fox
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A battle goes terribly wrong</p>
            </blockquote>





	Say Something (i would have followed you)

**Author's Note:**

> I'm so sorry. This has been floating around in my brain since I first heard Say Something by A Great Big World months ago. And the longer I sat on it, the more involved it got and now I have a huge ass project planned that takes place after this piece.
> 
> I'm greatly indebted to [ Phouka](http://archiveofourown.org/users/PhoukasPenmanship/pseuds/PhoukasPenmanship) for her incredible Beta work. I'd still be hitting my head on my keyboard if it weren't for her!
> 
> Spoilers in the end notes for those who want to know the MCD before they start reading.

_Say something, I'm giving up on you_

_I'm sorry that I couldn't get to you_

_Anywhere, I would've followed you_

_Say something, I'm giving up on you_

* * *

 

 

_This looks bad._

Clint spun in a tight circle and stabbed an arrow through the eye socket of the alien-robot- _thing_ that had snuck up behind him. Pivoting swiftly on his feet, he drew back on his bow and shot another cyborg in the throat, causing viscous green liquid to splatter everywhere.

Clint _hated_ alien invasions. They always fucked up a perfectly good day.

And these aliens were particularly ugly, in Clint’s opinion. They were vaguely humanoid looking, except for the fact that they had various spines and ridges protruding over their bodies. Their faces looked like those of a praying mantis, bug eyes and all. Then there was the fact that they were not even entirely organic; their torsos were mostly metal and mechanics, various limbs would end in sharp metallic claws. Their heads were an ugly hodgepodge of mechanical bits shoved into various parts of the skull.

Clint shuddered as he swiped a knife through the throat of one who had gotten too close. They reminded him far too much of the Chitauri.

Pausing for a breath, Clint glanced over the battlefield to take stock of who was fighting what and where.

The sheer number of invaders had quickly caused the team to split up. Sam was tailing Natasha, playing assist by picking off those who tried to sneak up on her while she was otherwise engaged; Tony had developed this strategy of leading small groups at a time into alleyways where he would then blast them with his repulsors - showy, no doubt, but effective.

Clint watched the Vision and Rhodes, who were taking care of the aliens with the ability to fly, as well as their ships, or at least Clint assumed they were ships - sometimes it was hard to tell, okay? Meanwhile, Bucky and Wanda were a force to be reckoned with as they stood back to back and taking on anything that came their way, the pile of bodies ever growing at their feet; the Hulk was doing what he did best and smashing any grey-green thing that moved.

When Clint’s eyes finally landed on Steve, he sucked in a breath and immediately began firing arrow after arrow at the huge swarm that was moving towards the Captain. How had he not seen that?

“Hey, Cap!” Clint quipped into the comm, grinning. “Ain’t you just the belle of the ball today, bringing all the boys to the yard!” He shot an exploding arrow into a particularly dense cluster of aliens.

Steve didn’t get a chance to respond before Bucky was snickering. “They musta heard that Steve finally learned to dance!”

Clint mock-gasped. “He did what now? I’m sure I would have heard something about the great Captain America taking dance lessons, if that were true!”

Steve just sighed over the comms, used to the back and forth banter, and knew better than to give in to the taunting. Clint caught sight of him grabbing two aliens by their heads and cracking their skulls together, blood spraying everywhere. Gross.

“C'mon, Steve! I need details here!” Clint whined as he pivoted and slammed a knife through the eye of a creature that had thought it was a good idea to sneak up on him. Ha! Clint sure showed it!

Steve deflected Clint by stating, “Hey, Hawkeye, I’m pretty sure you missed a shot a second ago. Maybe you should think about keeping your head in the game rather than gossiping!”

“I did not!” Clint somersaulted off the car he had been standing on, shooting one arrow mid twist and one as he landed. Both shots hit their targets. “I never miss!”

Bucky laughed again. “Steve, I bet I can give Clint the details of your dance lessons if you don’t want to! And I’m sure Nat or Sam would be happy to fill in the blanks, too!”

Sam pitched in while he had a second to breathe as he flew over their heads, “Hell yeah, I would!”

“Oh oh! Yes, give me _all_ the dirty details!” Clint snickered as he kicked an alien in the chest, sending it stumbling back just in time to crash into a raging Hulk. Poor thing didn’t last long after that.

Steve groaned. “When did my team get replaced with children?”

“If I’m a child, what does that make you? I’ve got a year on you, at least!” Bucky shot back.

“If you actually acted your age, I wouldn’t be calling you a kid!”

Clint cackled, “I don’t think it would be a good idea if _either_ of you acted your age!” Clint ran for a nearby fire escape and scaled it, shooting off a few exploding arrows as he went.

Bucky laughed again while Steve just muttered something under his breath.

Natasha butted into the conversation, saying, “Hawkeye, if there is anyone on this team who should _not_ be giving advice about acting one’s age, it would be you. You never act your age.”

Clint pouted, but before he could defend himself to Natasha --maturity was _so_ overrated-- Steve cut in. “Hey, how about we talk about the relative maturity of our team members later? Right now, we should be doing our jobs and not messing around.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Clint nearly rolled his eyes as he shot yet another creature down before it got to Steve. He reached behind him and grabbed for another arrow, only to have his hands clench on air. He spun the quiver, desperately hoping to find an arrow he had missed earlier.

Nothing.

 _Fuck_ . Now was _not_ the time to be running low on arrows!

Taking a chance, Clint quickly glanced around the rooftop he had taken roost in. There were a few arrows shoved into various bodies that he could grab, but not nearly enough to last the rest of the fight.

Clint looked up to see how Steve was doing and nearly dropped the few arrows he had gathered up. He stared in growing horror, helpless in the face of  the scene unfolding below him. While he had been busy looking for arrows, the swarm around Steve had nearly tripled in size; what had once been a small enough cluster to tease over, had now grown into a serious threat.

Clint watched as one of the aliens leapt onto Steve’s back. In one quick motion, it brought down its weapon right into Steve’s neck. Clint didn’t have to wait long to find out what the weapon actually did. The energy bolt that came out of the weapon was strong enough that Clint could hear and feel the air crackle with electricity from where he still stood on the rooftop.

The bolt was bright blue and it arced out of the weapon in mad looking tendrils. They wrapped themselves around Steve, sending him crumpling to the ground in a heap, his shield underneath him. The alien on his back tilted its head back and gave a wild screech. The others around it mimicked the cry and began to disperse to join others in their fights.

Clint shuddered at the sound. It was horrible and would likely haunt his dreams for the next few months, at least.

Clint pulled himself together fast enough that he was able to get an arrow through Steve’s attacker before its fleeing form was out of range. He smiled grimly as his arrow went cleanly through the creature’s neck, nearly severing its head from its spindly body.

“Hey, Cap! Get your lazy ass moving! We still have fighting to do!” He tried for a bit of levity, unsure how hurt Steve actually was. Maybe the situation looked worse than it was. He waited for Steve’s snarky response or for him to flip the bird in Clint’s general direction.

Nothing.

Clint figeted and began to make his way down from the relative safety of his perch. “Steve? Hey, old man, you’re like a sitting duck! Get moving!”

Clint realized he was still on the open comm channel when he heard Bucky chuckle over the line.

“Whatever these guys are carrying isn’t enough to keep Cap down, right, Stevie?”

Clint began to move faster down the building’s fire escape when even Bucky’s light teasing didn’t garner a response. When he made it down to ground level, he began gathering as many arrows as he could find as he made his way over to Steve, pulling them out of flesh and mechanics and shoving them into his quiver. He might have strayed a little more than necessary in his quest for arrows, as he really didn’t want to make it over to Steve quite yet. He was desperately hoping for Steve to respond to Bucky’s calls or move or do _something_ other than just lay there, utterly still.

“Steve?” Bucky called over the comm, anxiety seeping into his words. Still no response.

Clint watched as Bucky began to move faster toward their fallen Captain. The soldier was so distressed that he started to forget about the enemies converging on him and Steve. Clint slid to a halt and began shooting the aliens that Bucky was now ignoring; his ammunition was still low, so he made sure to make every shot count.

Clint focused on the dangers around him but also kept one eye on Bucky and Steve. What played out broke his heart.

Bucky slid to a stop next to Steve’s prone form. He placed a hand on Steve’s chest, while the other stroked Steve’s face. Even from where he was standing, Clint could see the Captain’s eyes open and staring at nothing.

“Steve? No...Steve, you can’t do this to me. Steve!”

The comm was still on.

“Com’on, man!” Bucky moved the hand that was resting on Steve’s chest to feel for his pulse. What he felt must have needed verification, as Bucky quickly placed his head on Steve’s chest, listening for anything. A breath, a heartbeat.

“Don’t do this to me Steve, you bastard!” Bucky shifted and started CPR, pounding on Steve’s chest as though his life depended on it.

“Steve...Stevie...Say something. Please?” The hitch in Bucky’s breath made Clint twitch uncomfortably; he shouldn’t be listening to this.

Clint temporarily switched to a private channel. “Hey, Nat, we might have a situation on our hands. I’ve got an eye on it, but inform the rest of the team, yeah? And maybe call in backup and medical?”

Natasha responded quickly, “Is Steve…?” Only someone who had known Natasha for as long as Clint had would have heard the slight tremor in her voice when she said Steve’s name.

Clint paused briefly. He wasn’t sure what to say, so he went with a simple, “Unknown.”

There was silence on the other end of the comm for just a second, just long enough for Clint to know that Natasha was composing herself. “Understood.” Natasha quickly disconnected.

Clint gave himself a second to close his eyes, to feel the edge of grief he knew would flood him as soon as the adrenaline of the battle left his system. But, he had a job to finish, and even a second was too long.

Clint opened his eyes and immediately shot an arrow at an alien that had nearly made it to the prone forms of Steve and Bucky. It screeched as its spindly arm was torn off, then let out a choked gurgle when Sam swooped down to shoot it a few times in the head. While he switched the comm back to the open channel, Clint glanced up at Sam to acknowledge the assist, but Sam was already moving away on swift wings.

Clint shot a look back to Bucky, who was still kneeling over Steve.

“Please, Steve. Don’t...you can’t...I just found you again.”

Clint shot a few more mantis-aliens down and realized he was down to only a few arrows again. Keeping an eye on Bucky, he circled the area, once again pulling arrows from still-warm flesh. An explosion to his left told him his team was still fighting, possibly keeping most of the aliens at bay for the time being.

“I can’t do this without you, Stevie. I’m not...I’m not strong enough, I don’t think.”

Clint swallowed harshly. This was such a private moment, but he couldn’t turn his comm off without risking one of his team needing him; they, too, were stuck listening in on the beginnings of Bucky’s grief. Everyone was uncharacteristically silent. There was no banter or teasing. Just silence on the line.

“Damn you, Steve. I can’t do this! And you just.... you selfish bastard, you’re leaving Nat and Sam, too! How could you?” Bucky’s voice choked off as he tried to contain his emotions and tears. In his ear, Clint heard a harsh intake of breath from Sam and a low whine from Natasha.

Gently, more gently than Clint expected, Bucky shifted Steve’s body so that he was laying on his back. He then passed his hands over Steve’s face, in a gesture Clint recognized as him closing Steve’s eyes.

Bucky then slumped against Steve, his shoulders heaving with grief. As he slowly sat up, Clint was sure he was going to yell or scream or do _something._ Instead, Bucky went completely still, only the slight movement in his chest and shoulders indicating he was still breathing and alive. The change in his expression was terrifying, even from where Clint stood.

The lines of pain and grief smoothed out on Bucky’s face, his mouth thinned. His eyes, though. His eyes chilled Clint to his core. They stared out with a predatory stare, something dark and threatening gleaming from deep within. He was absolutely feral, and the rage and pain reflecting the promise of blood and destruction to anyone who got in his way.

The man Clint had come to know over the last few months was gone.

When the Winter Soldier stood up in a move filled with coiled purpose, Clint instinctively flinched back into a fight-ready position.  There was something about the Soldier’s body language that demanded fear and respect. And boy, was Clint feeling a healthy dose of both.

The Soldier’s muscles flexed while his hands clenched into fists; despite the layers of fabric and protective gear, the ripple and bulge of muscles was clear. Even the straps across the man’s chest and thighs strained against the press of flesh and sinew. Clint swallowed at the simple display of power and strength; he tried to focus on filling his quiver and keeping a safe distance from Bucky.

The Soldier stood straight for a minute, looking down on the prone Captain. Turning on his heel, he began to make his way to a cluster of the alien creatures. He paused, however, and made his way back to where Steve’s body lay. In a swift movement, he reached down and grabbed Steve’s shield.

Suddenly, the Soldier was moving, striding back toward the group of aliens that were surrounding Wanda as she threw as much energy as she could at them. He threw the shield, launched it, really, at the cluster and followed it with a leaping lunge.

Clint blinked at the sudden show of violence that unfolded. Aliens were flying everywhere as the Soldier kicked and punched his way through them. Green blood splattered the concrete and up the walls of the nearby buildings. Clint watched as the shield ricocheted off of various parts of the aliens, knocking them out cold.

Clint jumped on the comm, “Hey, Scarlet Witch? I’m...not sure how aware Bucky is right now. You might want to get out of there as soon as you can.”

“What? Why? It’s fine, Hawkeye. We’ve got this!”

“I’m not worried about the annoying bugs, Wanda! It’s Barnes! Something has happened to Steve and I’m not sure I’ve seen Bucky like this. Move away from him, now!”

There as a slight pause for a moment. “Understood, Hawkeye.” Wanda floated into the air and flew over to land beside Clint.

“What is he doing?” Wanda glanced from Clint and back over to where the Winter Soldier was decimating the aliens. His moves were fluid and controlled, full of violence in a way Clint had never seen. The style reminded him slightly of Natasha when she fought hand to hand. The brute force that the Soldier used, however, was quite different and highly effective.

“He’s...I think he’s slipped back into his programming.” Clint frowned, watching the Soldier toss the shield around with ease. Aliens were flooding in from the rest of the battleground, obviously alerted to a high threat.

With a brutal show of strength, the assassin raised the shield above his head and slammed it down into one of the aliens, cleaving easily through both metal and flesh. Blood splashed up onto the shield, nearly obscuring the star on it’s front. The Soldier’s face was painted in a mask of green, making him look even more wild than before.

More and more aliens converged upon the Soldier, but he simply continued to cut them down. They dropped around him quickly, and soon he was standing in an ever growing pile of twitching bodies.

Far quicker than Clint imagined possible, most of the aliens on ground level were now incapacitated. The few that remained standing turned and ran, eventually getting picked up by one of their crew that was still in the air. Those in turn turned around the flew up the their ships; the invasion was over - for the moment.

Clint had been so mesmerized by the Soldier’s fight that he hadn’t heard the rest of his team make their way over him and Wanda. Sam and Natasha were standing further back than even Clint was, well aware of the damage the assassin could cause; both looked torn apart and clasped each other’s hands in white-knuckled grips. The Vision stood with a hand on Wanda’s shoulder as she watched the end of the fight, eyes gleaming. Rhodey was supporting an exhausted and weary Bruce--both looked a bit stunned at the show of violence they had just witnessed.

Tony was the only one not present in their cluster, and when Clint looked around for him, he spotted him making his way toward Steve’s form. His stiff posture, obvious even while in the suit, screamed disbelief the closer he got to Steve. Before Clint could call out and warn him that being that close to Steve might not be a good idea right now, the Soldier finished off his last victim and caught sight of Tony.

With a snarl of rage, the Soldier ran for Tony. As Tony raised his hands to use his repulsors, the Soldier made to throw the shield.

Without thinking, Clint bolted. He found himself standing in between an enraged and hurting super soldier and a man in a metal suit.

Arms raised defensively out to his sides, Clint had a mini panic attack.

_Aww, self, why?_

Realizing he was already in a deadly position, Clint tried to make the best of it.

“Tony...I need to you to power down your repulsors and back away from Steve.”

“Are you fucking kidding me, Barton?! Who’s to say he won’t just fling the shield at me anyway? And what about you!?”

“Tony, do it. Now!”

“Your funeral,” Tony bit out, then flinched as he processed his own words. Quickly, he powered down the repulsors. Arms still raised, but this time in a stand-down position than one of attack, Tony stepped back until he was with the rest of the team.

The Winter Soldier still had the shield raised and was in a low crouching position a short distance from Steve’s body. Clint kept his own hands up for the moment. When the Soldier didn’t make any movements forward -- not like Clint would see any indication before it was too late anyway -- Clint lowered his hands and simply stood, arms at his side, shoulders slumped.

“Barnes. Stand down. You did good, man. Come on, come back to us now.” Clint kept up a string of words; he had no idea what he was doing, but he did know he had to bring Bucky back to himself.

Something Clint said must have made it through the Soldier programming -- that, or Bucky was simply coming down from his rage -- because the man slowly stood up from his crouch. His eyes lost their feral gleam, and instead flooded with grief and pain. When he reached his full height, he let the gory shield fall from his hands and he dropped his head.

All of the fight drained out of Bucky, leaving him exhausted. Clint approached slowly, both of his hands raised slightly again, praying that it read as an indication he meant no harm. Before he could get too close, however, Bucky lifted his head from its forward slump and stared unseeingly at Clint.

Bucky’s face crumpled into an expression of pure agony. Throwing his head back, he let loose an ear-splitting wail so heart wrenching that Clint stumbled to a halt. He knew that Bucky’s scream would be mixing with the screeches of the aliens in his nightmares for months to come. He had never heard anything so full of anguish and pain.

Bucky crumpled forward, head nearly touching the ground, as the scream ended. His body heaved and shuddered as he gulped in lungfuls of air.

Clint darted forward and rested his hand tentatively on Bucky’s shoulder. There was no response from the spent man beneath his touch.

“Hey, shhhh. Clint here. Just breathe, Bucky. Just breathe.” Bucky still didn’t respond, though his breathing slowly evened out. “Good, that’s good, Bucky. Just keep breathing, that’s it.”

Unconsciously, Clint began running his hand through the gory mess of Bucky’s hair, trying to calm the still trembling man. Bucky didn’t so much as twitch at the additional contact. Instead, he stared into the distance, utterly unaware of his surroundings.

“C'mon, man, come back to us.” Clint leaned into Bucky, pushed a little at his shoulder. Still no response.

“Is he…?” The start of the tentative question caused Clint to jerk his head up; he had been so caught up in helping Bucky that he had completely forgotten that the rest of the team had made their way over earlier.

Wanda was biting her lip, filthy and weary, but looking a bit awed from the display of violence. Clint realized it was she who had started to ask the question.

Clint shook his head and looked back down at the top of Bucky’s bloody head. “I don’t think he’s anywhere close to okay, Wanda. Not even close.”

**Author's Note:**

> Steve is overwhelmed by the alien forces and is killed in action. Bucky goes Winter Soldier on everyone's ass.
> 
> Please note that I absolutely adore Steve. I love him with all my heart. But I'm incredibly interested in looking at the team dynamics if they lost their beloved leader...And I also wanted to look at different characters and their reactions to grief. These are the things that have inspired the much larger project.
> 
> Consider this the prologue piece! I'm working on the main part now!
> 
> Thank you for reading!


End file.
